The 1971 Pulitzer Prize Decision

The year 1971 was another year in which no Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was awarded. The Jury report stated that they couldn’t decide on “a single, unanimous, persuasive choice” and instead the Jury offered an alphabetical list of books, with no particular enthusiasm expressed for any of the three: Losing Battles by Eudora Welty, a novel that takes place over two days on a Mississippi farm; Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellow, a novel about a holocaust survivor adjusting to modern life; and The Wheel of Love by Joyce Carol Oates, her third short story collection. The Board rejected all three and opted for no award. They apparently considered recognizing Eudora Welty for her lifelong achievements, but ultimately agreed with the Jury that Losing Battles was “lacking in the freshness of some of her earlier works.”

After being snubbed twice (for The Adventures of Augie March in 1954, and Mr. Sammler’s Planet in 1971), Saul Bellow would go on to finally win a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for Humboldt’s Gift. Additionally, after also being denied in 1971, Eudora Welty would finally won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for The Optimist’s Daughter.

The 1971 Fiction Jury consisted of:

• P. (Pierre) Albert “Al” Duhamel (1920-2006) was a professor of English at several prominent universities, including the University of Chicago (1945-1949) and most notably at Boston University (1949-1990). He received his BA from Holy Cross College and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin. Duhamel was involved with a variety of literary organizations like the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to serving on the Pulitzer Prize Fiction Jury, he also served on the National Book Award Jury (1972-1973). He was the book editor at the Boston Herald where he wrote a weekly column entitled “I’ve Been Reading” and he later hosted a literary television show, reportedly sporting a Harris tweed and often flanked by fellow academics, entitled “People Are Reading.” Interestingly enough, an odd and amusing episode of the show “People Are Reading” gave Julia Child her initial television debut, but it was typically a dry academic program that has been described as a predecessor to more contemporary shows like Charlie Rose. When Dumahel died in 2006 he was survived by his daughter.  
• Elizabeth Janeway (1913-2005) was a bestselling novelist, book reviewer for The New York Times (where she famously defended Lolita) and a judge for the National Book Awards in 1955 as well as for the Pulitzer Prize in 1967 and 1971. She was an executive of International PEN; president of Author’s Guild (1965-1969); a longtime member of the executive board of the American Center of Poets, Essayists and Novelists; a member of the board of directors of the McDowell Colony; and a judge for both the National Book Awards and the Pulitzer Prizes. She was a trustee of Barnard College (her alma mater), a fellow of Berkeley College at Yale University and a director of the Legal and Education Fund for the National Organization for Women. She was married to economist, Eliot Janeway, who was an influential advisor to both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson (and also a critic of U.S. economic policy from FDR to Reagan). They had two sons.  
• Julien Lon Tinkle (1906-1980) was a historian, writer, book critic, and professor who specialized in the history of Texas. He spent most of his life in Dallas where he graduated from, and later taught at, Southern Methodist University. In 1942 he became a book editor and critic for the Dallas Morning News and his first book, Thirteen Days to Glory: The Siege of the Alamo, was published in 1958 and later made into a television movie. He married Maria Ofelia Garza, had three sons, and died in Dallas in 1980.